


isolate pure spirits

by AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: ADHD Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Claustrophobia, F/M, Identity Issues, Identity Reveal, Injury, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Podfic Welcome, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, Romance, sitting these two clowns down to talk about their feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 05:18:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19125370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: The problem with Ladybug and Chat Noir using Lucky Charm and Cataclysm so close together is, when the akuma then knocks the building over on top of them, it may prove impossible to free themselves while their secrets stay intact.





	isolate pure spirits

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: turn around so I can look at you properly

"I _know_ it doesn't make sense," says the crying girl his own age, who wore Ladybug's armor and now kneels shivering a meter away in dark blazer and pale jeans, cradling a semiconscious Tikki in hands Chat Noir can't see because the girl's painfully familiar back is to him. "I don't _want_ you to love me like that, so why should I _care_ that you don't love me like this?"

 _Don't_ , she says, not _won't_ , as Chat's Miraculous lets out another warning beep. Ladybug said to run the timer out, for whatever good that does, because his leg will be no less pinned after his mask falls than before. Adrien will only have food for Plagg on him anyway, not also Tikki, unless she's willing to eat Plagg's cheese stinkbombs and they're both willing to go short until they're all out of here.

"I'm pretty sure I love you either way," Chat says instead, and shifts how he's leaning on his elbows. It doesn't help. "I'm no different with the mask off—I have to worry a lot more about what my father thinks and I have a much worse pole vault, that's all. I don't know why you'd change."

"Lucky you," Ladybug mutters, and sniffles.

Chat shrugs, though she can't tell. "You could come over where I can see you properly and let me decide for myself how I feel about this you. I'm just saying."

She hunches in on herself a little more and doesn't answer.

The ring beeps again and a flash of green light steals Adrien's vision: the I-beam on his shin shoots _fire_ —

"Chat!" He can hear Ladybug's jeans scratching hurriedly across the floor: her fumbling hands find his shoulder, startling—an instinctive jerk—another hiss of pain. "Sorry!" she yelps. "Plagg! Plagg, where did you go, get _over_ here—"

"Ow," grumbles Plagg. "Kid, you gotta stop getting yourself in these messes."

" _Not_ his fault!" snaps Ladybug. (It…really kind of was.) "Chat, where's—"

"Shirt pocket," is the likeliest answer.

Ladybug wraps an arm around his shoulders and navigates to that pocket by feel; Adrien can't tell if he's purring in distress or delight. "Just one?" she asks, pulling out the emergency wedge of Camembert.

"Usually plenty," Adrien grits out, resisting the temptation to bury his nose in the lavender–rosemary–sugar cookie scent of her hair. "Split with—"

"That won't help," Plagg interrupts. "Tikki's too cold. Give it." A moment; he hears Plagg gulp. "You two should get over yourselves and trade names," he adds. "You both know you're both trustworthy." Adrien, who is not sure he knows any such thing about himself, says nothing. "And I'm sick of hearing him moon after you," Plagg continues, "while you're over there mooning over Poster Boy."

" _Plagg I will end you_ ," snarls Ladybug.

"Opposite of helping," Adrien adds. "Can I—agh!—yet?"

Adrien feels Plagg bump his furry head on Adrien's cheek. "Now."

He closes his eyes. "Plagg, claws out!"

The pain ebbs.

"Better?" Ladybug asks, gentle.

Chat Noir flexes his foot and grimaces. "It hurts less, but I think I cracked a bone when my timer went. It didn't hurt at all before." His heart rate's going up, too. Weird—shouldn't he feel _less_ trapped, now that he knows he can break free?

"Peachy." Ladybug's free hand finds its way to his hair, where she scratches at the base of his cat ears. "So I can't transform until Tikki is warm and fed, which we can't do in here," she says. He is definitely purring more from delight than distress right now, though that would be different if she were still crying. "You can blast us out, which puts you back on a timer, and if anyone who saw us go in sees us come out, my identity stops being secret. Maybe yours too. And you may not be able to _walk_ right now, never mind when the mask is back off, which is going to make getting us somewhere we can _get_ Tikki warm and fed _extra_ fun. Meanwhile there is still an akuma out there looking for us. Have I missed anything?"

"…Maybe." She makes a questioning sound. "You said 'getting _us_ somewhere _we_ can' take care of Tikki." Silence. "While one or both of us is out of uniform."

"—You haven't looked yet?"

"You sound surprised," says Chat. 'Startled' or possibly 'shocked' is more accurate.

"It's inevitable, all right?" She's starting to cry again. "I just—I know it doesn't make sense, I _know_ , but—"

Ladybug doesn't have night vision. "My name's Adrien," Chat says; Ladybug squeaks and stills. He could claim his family name—he's daydreamed about that before, about Adrien Agreste being Ladybug's secret celebrity crush, so that the moment she knew his name she would fling herself into his arms—but that would ruin this somehow. Make it about something other than Ladybug and Chat Noir, Adrien and the girl holding him now. "Sorry I took so long to show up ready to fight Gorizilla," he continues. "I couldn't exactly tell you I was already there."

She shakes her head, pigtails whacking him in the face. "No, that's—you're—I—"

Right. That's the same day she saw Chat Noir standing by 'Adrien'. "Well, after you made my heart melt saying to my face how much you trusted me," Chat says, "I couldn't let you down. I got that fanboy to be me for a bit."

"Oh," says Ladybug, and laughs wetly, pressing her head to the side of his. "Okay."

Lovely as this is, Tikki is still out cold and they are still trapped and Chat's leg is still broken. "Bug?" he asks, tentative. "Can I open my eyes yet?"

She lets out a groan and goes back to scratching his head. "Might as well. At least we'll _both_ get interrogated for acting weird at school tomorrow."

Chat blinks a few times, adjusting again to the light level. By which, considering just how well he _couldn't_ see a few minutes ago, he thinks he means the magic level, since there isn't any actual light.

Ladybug's unmasked face is shaped no differently than her masked face. Her hairstyle is the same, though he knows his changes; he can't tell right now, but he thinks her eyes don't change either. He knows that blazer, he's sure, and that custom-embroidered shirt. (Has she tucked Tikki into her bra? Never mind, he doesn't want to know, and he shouldn't stare.) He even knows her voice!

He just doesn't know her _name_.

"…You don't actually want me to know, do you," Chat realizes; it's the worst hurt of the day. "I didn't think the voice trick would _work_ when I could _see_ you!"

"—Voice trick?"

"Remember against Horrificator, when you were worrying about Adrien-me because you hadn't heard him sound off yet?" She nods, frowning. "I ducked behind one of the pods and said I was fine, what about Marinette. And you bought that, and I can only think it's because you were expecting to hear from Adrien-me and you couldn't see it was Chat-me talking."

Ladybug has the most adorably confused expression right now.

"And we've done the other way around," Chat continues. "Several times. Like in the sewers on Heroes' Day, so don't tell me you—"

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Ladybug interrupts, one fingertip a few centimeters from his face.

"One?" He leans forward to boop her finger with his nose—a mistake, he realizes too late, when the motion jars his leg. And her finger's cold. "Why?"

Ladybug squeezes the shoulder her other hand is still on, then closes her left eye. "Which eye—"

"Your left is closed," Chat interrupts. "I can see you fine, all right? I just don't _recognize_ you. And that's okay!" he hastens to add. "It's fine! I promise I am not going to die of heartbreak!" Though he might find himself wishing otherwise. "But I would really like to get out where I can breathe! Which isn't—which isn't—" He can't—

"—Oh, kitty," Ladybug murmurs, and sniffles again. "Breathe with me, okay," and she models a long slow inhale, a longer slower exhale. "Once you're calm, you can use Cataclysm and get us out of here, okay? I'll carry you if I have to. We will be _all right_. Come on. Breathe."

He matches her long slow inhale, her longer slower exhale. Again. And again.

"I think," Chat says finally, heart still racing, "I want the blast to hit what's on my leg _first_. After that it can spread wherever gets us out without getting anyone else in worse. But—"

"Here," says Ladybug, and moves behind him, so he can lean on her and sit nearer upright, so his weight can come off his arms.

"Cataclysm!"

A meter or more of I-beam rusts away to nothing, taking more rubble with it: Ladybug hauls him upright, flings him over her shoulders, and runs, crouched, down the tunnel as it burrows outward, its structure holding for only moments once they've passed, throwing clouds of dust on crashing down behind them.

Light. Air.

Chat Noir holds his arms to hide her face from pursuers and passersby.

Ladybug ducks into an alley and eases him down behind a dumpster. "Claws in," Chat mutters, and feels the pain redouble.

"You're both impossible," Plagg informs them matter-of-factly, and dives into—okay, no, Adrien is _not_ wondering where Tikki and Plagg are hiding. Not without permission.

"Probably," Ladybug mutters. "Can you walk if you lean on me, or do I need to keep carrying you?"

"Dunno. Help me up?"

He can hop, it turns out; the injured leg isn't taking any weight. Ladybug does her best, but she's too short to be a crutch for someone as tall as Adrien is, and too tall to be a cane. "We should try to avoid classmates," she says in an undertone, maneuvering their three-legged race out of the alley and along the street. "I'll introduce myself later, I promise, and I think we _might_ be able to count on everyone knowing _civilian Ladybug_ carried Chat Noir out and not recognizing _me_ , but I don't think that's going to hold if we run into—"

"Marinette! Adrien!" shouts Alya behind them.

"—told you," mutters—

His head hurts.

Alya runs up beside them. "I got her on video, Marinette! I got _civilian Ladybug_ on _video_!"

"Hero Ladybug," says Adrien, trying his level best not to sound in pain, "is going to outright murder you for posting that."

"I wasn't going to _post_ it," Alya protests. "I don't want to make her life harder, I just want to help! —Hey, what happened to you?"

"He twisted his ankle," Marinette lies smoothly. "He'll be fine once he elevates it with ice, I think. But first we have to get to the ice."

"Right, okay, do—do you need help?" Alya glances both ways along the street. "I'm sure they came this way, but if you need help—"

"We're fine," Adrien assures her, though Alya's frown suggests it doesn't land quite how he meant. "Go chase your scoop."

"Right, okay—see you!" Alya zooms off.

Marinette adjusts her grip on Adrien's torso. "Huh," she says, surprised, as she starts them forward again. "She did not tease me once."

"…Why would she?" Adrien asks. He knows Alya has been trying to matchmake him and Marinette for approximately ever, which would work a lot better if they were actually into—

—into each—

Ladybug is Marinette.

She heaves a sigh. "Chat, promise me you're not going to be smug about this."

"About what?" Marinette is _Ladybug_.

"Promise me."

…Okay. There isn't going to be room for smug next to _Ladybug is Marinette_ anyway. "I prom—ow!—promise."

"So," says Marinette, squeezing Adrien's hand in silent apology. "The boy I love."

Adrien winces. "Must we?"

"Let me finish," says Marinette. Adrien shuts up. "I didn't think much of him at first. It looked like the first thing he did when he walked into our classroom for the first time was stick chewed gum on my seat to make Chloé and Sabrina laugh. I didn't want anything to do with him."

—He knows this story. "I know this story," he says, baffled.

Marinette glances up at him and smiles. "I know."

His leg hurts and his head hurts and nothing makes sense anymore and there is _still an akuma_. "Pâtisserie," Adrien says, nodding to the left as they reach a street corner. It's not Tom and Sabine's, but he so does not want to care right now.

"Cheese danishes," Marinette agrees, steering them that way. " _Heating_."

The reason, Adrien thinks, the reason Marinette flipped out when she realized she wasn't getting through the day without Chat Noir learning her name—it must be because she thinks _Marinette_ is less than _Ladybug_ somehow. He can follow that logic (after all, Chat Noir is Adrien only cooler, freer, and with—he thinks, aggravated, when a too-enthusiastic step jars his leg—a _far_ better pain tolerance), and he's certainly heard her flip out often enough about not measuring up to some standard, which half the time is self-imposed. And if she's ever heard about Adrien's ridiculous crush on Ladybug, which is, uh, not implausible, then that explains why Marinette, unwilling to admit to _being_ Ladybug, has never before told Adrien how she feels about him.

(Come to that, she may be telling herself she still hasn't. She told _Chat_.)

"Hey," Adrien murmurs, a meter yet from the pâtisserie door. "Marinette."

Her eyes are so very blue.

"I still love you," he tells her. "I love you more."

And her face is so very pink. "Lean there," she says, indicating the pâtisserie window with a tilt of her head. Adrien does, freeing Marinette to open the door. Once inside, he can lean on a wall while Marinette makes their purchase, though he's going to sneak some cash into her purse later, or behind her sewing machine or something. While the cashier takes care of the person ahead of her, Marinette gets out her phone.

His phone vibrates:

> _Marinette:_ I love you too

She glances back at him, hesitant, and answers his smile with a brighter one.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](http://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).


End file.
